Mayfair family
Mayfair family is a line of powerful witches which story is told in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy, although they also appear in some crossover with ''The Vampire Chronicles''. The Mayfair family originated in Donnelaith, Scotland, and over the centuries has been enriched making America their new home. The wealth of the family is in part due to the agreement entered into by Suzanne Mayfair with the demon Lasher, a disembodied spirit who offered his services to the family in exchange for a monstrous payment. Following the conclusion of this alliance, the family has ever suffered economic hardship, but rather it has expanded beyond measure with countless cousins and distant relatives. Mayfair Legacy Each generation a member of the Mayfair family is born with the ability to see, communicate and command Lasher. Such person is known as the Mayfair legacy's designee and as such has invested with the power to manage the family treasures, whose money capital reaches exorbitant amounts. The designated also has a necklace with an emerald gemstone that symbolizes the role. Generally, the designee are women, but in the course of history, Lasher smiled even to a man of the family, Julien Mayfair, who was the real-designate of his generation, as well as a powerful and dangerous witch. To preserve the magic power and allow the procreation of a being strong enough to host the spirit of Lasher himself, the Mayfair witches have committed incest and inbreeding over the years. This has, however, also led to the presence of physical but mostly mental ailments in the bloodline, creating powerful but mentally disturbed witches. The Thirteen Witches * [[Suzanne Mayfair|'Suzanne Mayfair']] (- 1659) The first of the Mayfair witches and the mother of Deborah, she calls forth Lasher in the circle of stones at Donnelaith, Scotland. Known initially as Suzanne of the May Fair, she is a "clever woman" of the village who helps heal the sick. Suzanne's lack of control over Lasher, allowed all to see her magic which eventually leads her to be burnt at the stake, in 1665 or, by some accounts, 1659, as her daughter is made a witch. * [[Deborah Mayfair|'Deborah Mayfair']] (1652 - 1689) Deborah Mayfair, Comtesse de Montcleve, was conceived during the May Festival and was called a "merry-begot". This and the fact that she may have been the daughter of the Earl were the reasons she wasn't burnt with her mother. She had an affair with Petyr Van Able, a member of the Talamasca. * Charlotte Mayfair (1667 - 1743) She was ordered to flee by Deborah when she was arrested for witchcraft so that she would survive. Charlotte, Antoine, and their son went to Saint-Domingue, where the family purchased a plantation there and it was named 'Maye Faire', ruled and ran by Charlotte, who was looked up to and respected by everyone. Charlotte lived to be almost 76 years old, dying in 1743. She had five children and seventeen grandchildren. The night Charlotte died, a fierce storm surrounded Maye Faire until morning when one of Jeanne Louise's sons was found dead. * Jeanne-Louise Mayfair (1690 - 1771) She is the first to retain the name Mayfair after she marries and used the name Mayfair for all her official documents. Peter, her twin, was her lifetime companion, the father of her fifth and favoured child, daughter Angelique, born 1725. She died in 1771, just a few hours after her brother. * Angelique Mayfair - she is doubly inbred even though her parents, as fraternal twins, are about as related as a brother and sister born years apart around 1725. Little is known about her as well. She married Vincente St. Christophe, the first person of French ancestry in the Mayfair line, and along with her sons Lestan and Maurice Mayfair, produces the next witch, Marie Claudette. * [[Marie Claudette Mayfair|'Marie Claudette Mayfair']] - She was the witch to establish the Mayfair Legacy. It was during the Haitian slave uprisings of the late 1700's that she moved her family, many belongings and her fortune intact to Louisiana. It was the loyalty cultivated by her great-grandmother, Charlotte, that prompted the slaves to warn her and her family of the uprisings before they could be attacked, giving them a chance to flee. * Marguerite Mayfair A beauty in her youth, a crazed hag as she got older, she conducted experiments on the bodies of dead slaves and their stillborn infants in attempts to bring Lasher into the flesh. Unfortunately, the bodies began to decay, unable to support life any longer, and Lasher was unable to "come through." * Katherine Mayfair (- 1905) She certainly was the weakest and least interested in the Mayfair legacy, the emerald and certainly in Lasher. In her youth, she would dress up as a man and go with her brothers to New Orleans, but as soon as she met and fell in love with Darcy Monahan, that changed. Katherine did make her contribution to the legacy and the line, however. It is she who commissioned the construction of the First Street house. * [[Julien Mayfair|'Julien Mayfair']] - presumably the real witch instead of his sister Katherine, Julien was Lasher's departure from his oath to Deborah, never to smile upon a male child. It was to him that Marie Claudette told about the family history all the way back to Suzanne, and taught him how to confuse Lasher with music. When he died in 1914, Lasher gave him a storm, whereas there was no storm to mark Katherine's passing in 1905. * [[Mary Beth Mayfair|'Mary Beth Mayfair']]' '(1872 - 1925) Deemed by the Talamasca to have been the most powerful witch produced by the family in the 19th Century, Mary Beth was indeed powerful. * Stella Mayfair (1901 - October 1929) following her sister Carlotta's rejection of Lasher. Mary Beth's daughter with Julien, she is the tenth witch of the Mayfair legacy. Born in 1901, after Carlotta and before Lionel. * Carlotta Mayfair - sister Stella and woman of great wickedness and severity, has took hold of the legacy as guardian of her niece Antha. Carlotta through frustration, tried to make Antha blind so she could no longer see Lasher and give him power. She pushed Antha out of the third-floor window to her death and then told everyone that Antha was insane and had jumped. * Antha Marie Mayfair - born 1921, was the only child of Stella. She could and would have Lasher appear to her anytime she wanted. At the age of 8 years, she witnessed her Uncle Lionel shoot her mother in the head and was then raised by her Aunt, Carlotta, even though she never had custody of her. She gave birth to her only child, Dierdre. * Deirdre Mayfair - Antha's daughter, her mental instability allowed her Great Aunt Carlotta to continue her own rule of terror by institutionalizing Deirdre, who gave birth to a daughter after she was raped by Cortland Mayfair. Deirdre was institutionalized for 17 years before she came home in 1976 to sit in her porch rocker and continue to be comatose until the end of her life. * [[Rowan Mayfair|'Rowan Mayfair']] - Born November 7, 1959, Rowan is Deirdre Mayfair's daughter by Cortland. She is the thirteenth witch in the line of Mayfair witches that Lasher chooses to try to realize his ambition to transform from spirit to flesh. She represents the fulfillment of her ancestors’ most powerful genetic traits and paranormal abilities. Carlotta immediately took Rowan from her mother, Deirdre, and gave her to Ellie Mayfair and Graham Franklin to adopt. It was Carlotta’s intention to break Lasher’s hold on the family and end the chain of evil; she had tried and failed to accomplish this with Deirdre. Carlotta makes Ellie promise never to tell Rowan of her family heritage or allow her to return to New Orleans. Hence Rowan grows up knowing nothing of her mother or her ancestors, the Mayfair witches. The Talamasca, however, keeps track of her, debating whether they should give their lengthy Mayfair file. At the age of thirty, she is five-foot-ten-inches tall, with blond hair and gray eyes. Brilliant, aloof, and independent, she has many of Petyr Van Abel’s traits, but resembles Julien the most, except for her coloring. She possesses an extra set of chromosomes that lie dormant, until Lasher activates them. As a neurosurgeon, she is well trained in medical practice and research and fully understands the nature of genetic mutation. Because she is so confident in her own abilities, Lasher easily seduces her into believing she can control him. * [[Mona Mayfair|'Mona Mayfair']] - Alicia Mayfair’s daughter and Ancient Evelyn’s great-granddaughter, she is the “twentyfold” Mayfair and a very powerful witch. Julien is her great-grandfather three times over. She has inherited the full complement of paranormal powers, including diagnostic sensitivities, and later she learns that she had a sixth finger, which was cut off when she was born. She nearly died as a result, but Evelyn had saved her. Mona has dreams of Julien beckoning her to First Street and encouraging her to seduce Michael Curry, whom Rowan has abandoned. Other noteworthy Mayfair witches, although not part of the bloodline of those belonging to the First Street house, are Great Nananne, Cold Sandra and Merrick Mayfair, people of color and followers of Voodoo. Mayfair House Mayfair mansion of First Street in the Garden District of New Orleans. Its construction was commissioned by Katherine Mayfair. It is a colonial-style villa, gorgeous Greek revival surrounded by a large garden with pool and has ten bedrooms, several living rooms and bathrooms. The villa is spread over several floors, and also consists of a large attic. This villa is inspired by the house of Anne Rice at the time she wrote the novels. Category:Mayfair Witches